Just one comment about this site . . . surface current here can be horrendous, especially with a south wind. It can be bad enough that scooters can't make headway against it. I still don't completely understand the currents at depth -- my husband dove here midway through a very large flood and had none -- but on windy days, I'd say pick another site.

"Sometimes, when your world is going sideways, the second best thing to everything working out right, is knowing you are loved..." ljjames

Jeremy wrote:Wow, I had no idea the old reef was so massive. What was the point of taking it out?

Tire reefs suck. They used to be a convenient way to build a reef and dispose of a whole lot of tires. But research has demonstrated that they aren't very good habitat (I don't have my finger on a citation at the moment). So you only really got the durable and tolerate critters living in/on them. They took it out and properly disposed of the tires when they built the new rock reef. Typically they burn waste tires in cement kilns or they get ground up and used in a variety of things as fillers (they don't go to landfills). I'm not sure what they do with salt water soaked ones though, maybe the ranger would know where they went.

Sounder wrote:Under normal circumstances, I would never tell another man how to shave his balls... but this device should not be kept secret.

This is sort of what it used to look like.. Here is another side scan survey of DeMoines fishing pier.. We did the same survey to establish the magnitude of this reef.. the longer term idea is to pull this entire reef and replace it with natural rock reef like Saltwater.

This tire reef is smaller and its about 600 x 500 feet with at least 2,000 tires.

Yeah, thats like about 7 Acres of tires!!!

"I believe that if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade... And try to find somebody whose life has given them vodka, and have a party" - Ron White

I would list Saltwater as advanced with the addendum for the young or very fit only! There is no way this old fart is considering this dive in any way other than a live boat situation.

Placing an artificial reef at the point of a stream outflow is never a good idea due to the long swim but I can understand that it needed to be at an already existing state park to be able to reduce the costs involved and make it a multi use park.

Last edited by Dusty2 on Tue Aug 13, 2013 11:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

Not as much as you think. Tires are crappy habitat and probably smush as many benthic critters living on or in the underlying mud for the few anenomes and things they support. Langley's tire reef was ok, but the logs helped create a way more complex structure.

FL has realized tires suck and is removing tens of thousands of them off some of their beaches.

Sounder wrote:Under normal circumstances, I would never tell another man how to shave his balls... but this device should not be kept secret.

Jeremy wrote:I still don't get the point of pulling a tire reef and replacing it with a rock reef. Yeah, rock reefs are better.

But why not put them at places like Kayak Point, Mukilteo, Edmonds Dry Dock, or TTN that have no reef? Pulling a tire reef has to destroy a lot of life.

According to WDFW the tire reefs are bad for the environment and they over time degrade and is best to remove it.

At all the dive and fishing locations they would need to replace it with something if they were to yank out the current reefs.

I have a list of about 20 tire reefs that needs to be surveyed and cataloged so there is more data to support any decision on how to prioritize the rip and replace project.

If you look at how well the Saltwater 4 yr old reef is doing and how life is thriving on the Alki Fishing reef, its hard to argue that a bigger/higher structure of natural rock, etc. is better for both wild life habitats and possibly increase the sustainability of the wildlife.

and putting the large structures in somewhat current sensitive locations is actually the better choice for creating a good place that attracts and sustains wild life.. more water movement, more nutrients, more critters.

"I believe that if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade... And try to find somebody whose life has given them vodka, and have a party" - Ron White

I am all for tire removal. Especially with the idea of replacement as a integral part of the plan. They are a very poor habitat and just plain ugly. Wish the concept were a part of the creosote removal plans too. Those projects do a lot of harm to the wildlife and leave wastelands in there place.